Weekend update
The Leeds Abbey Dash, was the main domestic highlight of the weekend that saw several women under 32 minutes and the top two men running sub 29-minutes. Elsewhere there were encouraging runs in South Wales, Northern Ireland and at the Rotterdam Marathon.
In a classy women’s 10k field at the Leeds Abbey Dash, Jess Piasecki (handicap -1.2) was the winner as she pulled away from Charlotte Arter (handicap -2.4) to claim victory by 11 seconds.The recent Olympian ran a huge personal best of 31:19, with Arter next in 31:30, which was also a big PB and Welsh record Jess Judd (handicap -3.0) recorded a PB time of 31:38 for third place.
Birchfield’s Kadar Omar (handicap -5.5) won the men’s race ahead of Omar Ahmed (handicap -6.3), clocking times of 28:46 and 28:50 respectively. The pair were convincingly ahead of Leeds man, David Mullarkey (handicap -5.3) who was third in a time of 29:13. In fourth place, young Samuel Charlton (handicap -4.6) ran a stunning 29:17 on his 10k debut!
At the ABP Newport Wales 10K, Paulos Surafel (handicap -5.5) added to his recent wins with a commanding performance in South Wales. Surafel was the winner with 29:42 in a record time with James Heneghan (handicap -5.3 )just ahead of James Hunt (handicap -5.8) with 29:54 and 30:00 respectively.
Hannah Alderson (handicap 2.5) was the top woman with 34:22 well ahead of the next woman, Imogen Wood (handicap 2.3) who ran 35:32.
While Bashir Abdi was setting a new European record of 2:03:36 in the Rotterdam Marathon with the help of Jake Smith pacing, Clara Evans (handicap -1.6) was the fourth woman in 2:31:19.
At the Valencia Half Marathon, Adam Clarke (handicap -6.0) ran an impressive PB of 62:58 for 40th place.
On the Dundonald mud, just outside Belfast, the Bobby Rea Cross-Country races were hotly contested, Adam Kirk-Smith (handicap -4.7) of Derry Track Club (and Woodford Green), ran 24:43 over the 8km distance to sprint home nine seconds clear of Eskander Turki (handicap -4.0) and U20 junior Matthew Lavery (handicap -2.0) in 25:19.
Jodie McCann from Dublin was the winner of the women’s 6km race in 21:47, with Belfast runner, Robyn McGee next in 22:07. Third was Loughborough graduate, Katie Moore (handicap 3.2) in 22:21.
UK runbritain rankings for endurance events and age groups
Other results from the weekend are on the following links: